Parents steel themselves for answers on baby ashes scandal

GRIEVING parents at the centre of Scotland’s baby ashes scandal will be interviewed about their nightmare ordeals at secret locations throughout the country by former Lord Advocate Dame Elish Angiolini within weeks.

Hundreds of mothers and fathers, who were wrongly told there were no ashes after their babies were cremated, could also receive heartbreaking news about the whereabouts of the remains during the meetings.

They have received letters from Dame Elish, who is leading a national investigations team to help locate the missing ashes after a judge-led commission called for an urgent review, informing them that she will shortly be arranging for them to give statements.

The move was welcomed by parents including Stacey Lamb, whose son Daniel was cremated at Daldowie Crematorium, Lanarkshire, less than four years ago.

The 29-year-old, from Glasgow, said: "I think I speak for most parents when I say that having to relive the nightmare all over again will be extremely painful and upsetting.

"I think about my son all the time but having to recall every detail of losing him, then the cremation and the way I was treated by crematorium staff will be very hard.

"Dame Elish has been looking into all the cases for months now so when we meet her individually she might have some information for us about where our baby's ashes are or we might be told we will never find out, either way it will be heartbreaking."

Stacey was 20 weeks pregnant with her second child when she was told there was no heartbeat and she had to give birth to her stillborn baby at Princess Royal Maternity Hospital in Glasgow.

Doctors said she lost her baby because she suffered an infection in her placenta.

After the service she asked for Daniel's ashes to keep in a heart-shaped locket around her neck but was told there was nothing left.

Having to relive the nightmare all over again will be extremely painful and upsetting

Stacey Lamb, parent

Staff insisted the bones of stillborn babies were too fine to survive a cremation so she was sent home to grieve with only a memory box containing his footprint, scan photos, a cuddly toy and the blanket she held him in for comfort.

News of the forthcoming interviews with parents comes just days after the Scottish Government appointed the first Inspector of Crematoria, Robert Swanson, a retired Lothian and Borders Police detective superintendent, to make sure horrors of the past are never repeated.

During his 41 years in the force he helped organise the recovery of bodies after the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 and he was the senior investigating officer for UK police in response to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand, arranging post-mortems and the repatriation of bodies.

The new post was one of the key recommendations following an inquiry into infant cremation led by Lord Bonomy after it was revealed that parents, whose children were cremated at Mortonhall Crematorium, in Edinburgh, had been lied to for decades by crematoria staff.

He is tasked with ensuring all 27 crematoria and the authorities adhere to new legislation on the cremation of stillborn babies and infants who die just days after birth, and maintain registers and other documents properly.

An independent Infant Cremation Commission was established last year in the wake of revelations at Mortonhall.

Similar cases have since emerged across Scotland, including at Glasgow and Aberdeen, where it is alleged children were cremated alongside adults and staff discarded babies ashes "like rubbish" and a separate investigation was launched led by Dame Elish.

The parents hope she will hold the key to finding out what happened to the remains of their babies after cremation when they meet the investigations team to give statements over the next few weeks.

The letters are accompanied by an advice leaflet telling them what to expect during the meetings.

It reads: "Once we have dates for meetings in your area, we will contact you and you will be able to phone or email the team to agree a time.

"We will be holding the meetings in various places across the country and will offer you a meeting at a venue closest to your current address.

"We expect the meetings to begin in April and to continue through the summer."

Dame Elish has spent the past months interviewing crematoria staff and wading through medical records to find the truth behind the whereabouts of the babies' remains.